I recently stumbled upon a brilliant piece of advice on the radio.

Did you know that if you post topless photos of yourself on the Internet, some dubious character may find out one day? And, depending on your career choices, you may even live to regret the decision.

"Think before you post," pleaded the extraordinarily even-tempered woman in this public service announcement, which was "brought to me" by the good people at the Department of Something-or-Other in conjunction with the Ad Council.

As I made a mental note to delete my topless photos pronto -- lest some wiseguy disseminate them on Facebook and induce hundreds of my "friends" to throw up -- I also resolved to investigate the Ad Council. After a lifetime of listening to its aggravating do-good spots, it was time.

I learned that "for 60 years," the Ad Council has created insipid icons and slogans "woven into the very fabric of American culture," such as Smokey Bear's "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires"; the Crash Test Dummies' "You Could Learn a Lot From a Dummy"; McGruff the Crime Dog's "Take a Bite out of Crime"; and, of course, "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste."

You can say that again.

If your standard Madison Avenue garbage isn't grating enough, the Ad Council gladly will flex its creative muscle. Then the resulting "public service" spots will run relentlessly before movies and on television, radio and the Internet, and some bureaucrat can profess triumph and clear his self-important conscience.

For years, we've heard advice about the glaringly self-evident ills of excessive drinking and drug use. Fine. But because I already have a wife, two daughters and 3,000 years of guilt to keep me perpetually harassed, the last thing I want to see popping up on TV is my "green" governor -- who lives in a mansion on the taxpayers' dime -- scolding me about the temperature reading of my thermostat. Continued...